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ISBN 1-871344-06-9     Price: UK £5.95     International £7.95

Category: Leicestershire Local History

Key Subjects:
Richard III
Battlefields
Bosworth
Henry VII
Tudor England
Plantagenets

Peter Foss:
THE FIELD OF REDEMORE:
The Battle of Bosworth, 1485, second edition
A comprehensive re-assesment of the evidence for the site of the Battle of Bosworth

Publication date 1998
Size 80 pages, 148 x 210mm
10 illustrations, 4 maps
format PB

Almost 20 years after this book was first published, the scholarship and interpretation of Peter Foss has been finally and definitively supported by major archaeological finds resulting from a massive four-year survey involving field-walking, metal detectors and soil-sampling, to pin down just where the Battle of Bosworth had been fought. Henry Tudor defeated Richard III in 1485 in a Leicestershire field, to become King Henry V, but where was that field?

It was the publication of Peter Foss’s book that opened up the debate, and provided tangible documentary evidence that the ‘approved’ version of the battle was not sustainable. It was always known that Market Bosworth itself was not the site of the battle. But for several hundred years it had been presumed that Ambion Hill, the site of Richard III’s camp, had been the site for the battle. With his ground-breaking re-assessment of the site of the Battle of Bosworth, first published by Rosalba Press in 1990, and with the current edition published in 1998, Peter Foss brought together an array of documents that built up a compelling argument for rejecting the traditional plan of the battle, moving the site onto a flat, formerly marshy area of Dadlington Parish, several miles to the south-west. With the County Council sticking resolutely to their Ambion Hill version of events, it became clear that a major study was needed to resolve the question. 

The English Heritage team, headed by Glenn Foard, have still not confirmed the exact site of their finds, due to possible raids by ‘night hawks’. The information published in The Times of Oct 29th 2009 showed a broad target area rather further west than Peter Foss’s putative plans. The map here shows the Peter Foss version of 1998, with the newly published ‘possible site’ shown as a yellow circle. Somewhere, presumably within that circle, they found two clusters of lead cannonballs - presumed to represent the shots from both sides, These imply a use of mobile field artillery - the earliest known use for such cannon, and 10 years before its previous known use - by the French invading Italy.

Until English Heritage’s reconstruction of the battle is published, it therefore remains true that the best way to get an understanding of the Battle of Bosworth is through this book. Still available from Kairos Press, and on sale at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre, it continues to be the best detailed and authoritative opportunity to review the evidence for yourself.

“The best analysis of the debate on the battlefield's location.”
Richard Holmes, War Walks (1997, BBC Books)

Contents

Chapter One – Chroniclers and Poets: The Problem of the Sources

Chapter Two – Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Antiquarian Interpretations

Chapter Three – Hill, Plain and Marsh: The Topography of a Battle

Chapter Four – The Battle of Bosworth: a New Interpretation

Notes

Select Bibliography

Appendix One: The Archaeological Problem

Appendix Two: The Hinckley-Lyre Agreement (1283)

Index

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